


Like the Sea Over Sand

by AngryPencilWielder



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Artificial Insemination, F/M, Pregnancy, Rape/Non-con Elements, Rating May Change, mermaid au, mermaid!kylo, mermaid!rey
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-07
Updated: 2018-04-07
Packaged: 2019-04-19 12:46:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14237613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngryPencilWielder/pseuds/AngryPencilWielder
Summary: 'On the sea, on the sea and land over landCreeping and crawling like the sea over sandStill I follow heartlines on your hand'Rey remembers very little of her life before glass walls and bright lights. Hazy memories of open sea and others like her is all she has left of her life before. She thought she was the last of her kind, until he arrived.Mermaid au based on OptimisticBeth’s Across the Way





	Like the Sea Over Sand

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Across the Way](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14212248) by [OptimisticBeth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/OptimisticBeth/pseuds/OptimisticBeth). 



> Ceasg is a Scottish mermaid, pronounced 'kee-ask'.  
> I don’t actually know American Sign Language, so please pardon any mistakes. I’ve tried doing my research to make it as accurate as possible. If you know ASL, or see anything wrong, please let me know and I’ll fix it.

Rey had long ago forgotten the taste of true salt water, or the feel of fresh ocean air. It had been nearly fourteen years since she’d last been outside the aquarium, three fourths of her life.

Aquarium, that was one of the words Finn taught her. It’s what the humans called the place she’d long ago learned to call home. The big structure of metal and stone was an aquarium, Empire Aquarium in the city of San Diego, which was in the state of California. Rey didn’t really understand what a state or a city or a California was, but she gathered it was a place based on what Finn had said.

Rey knew lots of words, like fish and friend and guest and show.

She also knew other, less fun words, like vet and needle and Snoke.

Rey hated Snoke, even more than she hated being lifted up out of her water and wheeled to the White Room to be poked and prodded and stabbed by little evil needles.

At least Finn was always there to hold her hand a stroke her tail and tell her it was going to be okay. But Finn couldn’t do anything about Snoke, because Finn said that Snoke owned the Aquarium, and if Finn did anything Snoke didn’t like then Snoke would make Finn leave forever.

There were other things Rey hated, like how the guests would sometimes yell and bang on her glass, or she would get pocked by the Big Stick if she ever did anything Bad (but Finn never pocked her, because Finn was nice), or how she would sometimes get so bored that she would drag her body against the tank walls as she swam in circles just to have something to do.

There were good things too, though, like the puzzles they gave Rey to solve, or the quite children who would smile kindly at her, or talking with Finn.

Finn was the only one she ever talked to, mostly because he was the only one at the Aquarium who knew Sign Language. When Rey first arrived, she’d tried talking to the strange limbed land-dwellers, but she’d quickly learned that they didn’t understand her chirps and squawks anymore then she understood their garbled tongue.

It wasn’t until she’d met Finn a few months into her captivity that she found any sort of companionship. The language barrier had been frustrating, but after months of the young human sitting on the metal railing above her tank and talking to her, Rey had begun to understand his speech. In those weeks she learned that the dark-skinned boy’s name was Finn, and that his father worked at the Aquarium and that Mr. Snoke let Finn spend time backstage after school as long as he didn’t do anything stupid.

Finn was Rey’s first friend since being taken from her family all those months ago, and she wanted to show her appreciation for him by learning to say his name. She’d practiced for weeks to get it right, but when she’d joyfully called his name as he came walking along her metal catwalk, Finn had nearly fallen into her tank in his shock.

He spent the next hour trying to teach her other words, but they’d quickly learned that Ceasg voices weren’t made for speaking English.

Finn didn’t let that deter him, no, not Finn. His warm eyes had lit up with a new idea and he had explained that he would teach Rey a special language that she could speak with her hands. Rey hadn’t understood at first, but as Finn spoke, joy bubbled up in her at the prospect of finally being able to communicate.

Finn came to her tank every day after school and spent hours teaching Rey how to speak with her hands, and Rey finally felt some bit of hope.

Once she was able, Rey asked Finn all the questions that had been burning inside her.

Where was she? Why was she here? When could she go home?

Finn was happy enough to answer the first one, “ _Empire Aquarium.”_ The second one he had a bit more trouble with. “ _People want to see a real life Ceasg. That’s what you are, a Ceasg. They used to be called mermaids, back when people still thought they were myths, but when Mr. Snoke caught the first live one fifty years ago, he called it a Ceasg.”_

Rey hadn’t really understood what he had meant at the time, but her third question was too important to ask Finn to elaborate.

_“I’m so sorry Rey, but you can’t go home.”_

Rey tapped her hand against her forehead, then brought her hand forward, folding up her first three fingers as she did so that only her thumb and pinky stuck out. _Why?_

 _“Mr. Snoke, he owns you Rey. He paid a lot of money to have fishermen catch you and bring you here.”_ Wetness had started to form in Finn’s eyes, something she had come to learn meant he was sad or hurt. _“He gets to choose what happens to you, and he’s never going to let you go back home. You live here now. I’m sorry.”_

Most of his words had gone over her head, but the message was received loud and clear. She was never going home.

Rey had silently sunk back under the water and hid in her little rock cave. She’d lay there the rest of the night and cried as her situation finally clicked.

She’d never see her family again.

She’d never be free.

 

* * *

 

**Thirteen Years Later**

* * *

 

Artificial light filtered through the gaps in Rey’s cave, drawing her out of sleep like it did every morning. She sleepily untangled herself from her nest of kelp and driftwood, careful not to disturb the structure she’d spent countless hours constructing in her youth. Rey stretched her arms over her head and yawned. Salt water rushed into her mouth and through her lungs, filtering out through the gills on her lower ribs. She closed her mouth with a happy smack, then lazily swam out of her cave and into the tank beyond.

The world beyond her glass walls was still dark as guest would not arrive for a few hours yet, but the lights above and scatter throughout her home were on, bringing with them the illusion of day.

Movement above her caught Rey’s attention and she quickly breached the surface with a wide grin. Finn’s smiling face greeted her from the catwalk above.

“Good morning Rey.” He both said and signed in greeting.

 _Good morning._ She signed back.

Like Rey, Finn had grown from a gangly adolescence to a confident adult in the fourteen years since their meeting. At twenty-three years old, Finn was about half as tall as Rey was long, a respectable height for his species, with close cropped black hair a wide, white smile. He’d graduated from her sole friend to her head ‘trainer’ when he turned sixteen and it became apparent he understood her better than any other human.

Rey knew Snoke kept a close eye on their friendship, but as long as they both continued to behave, and Rey continued to bring in the crowds Snoke so desired, the decrepit old man allowed their relationship to remain.

“Got your breakfast, Peanut.” Finn said, lifting up a metal bucket. Rather than answer, Rey reached out her hands and opened and closed her fingers in a ‘give me’ motion. Finn laughed and handed her one of the dead herring from the bucket.

Rey happily bit into her breakfast, opening her jaw far wider than a human could to bite it nearly in half. The second half was consumed just as eagerly as the first. Finn tossed Rey another fish, which soon met the same fate.

“They’re getting in a new attraction today.” Finn told her as he handed over a third herring. “In the tank next to yours.”

Rey glanced away from her meal and to the faux stone wall across from her. Her tank was an irregular shape, with two curved walls being clear glass for guest to view her from, a back wall of textured concrete, and fake coral barrier separating her from the empty tank beside her. A large opening was fixed in the center of the structure, with a long row of metal bars being to only thing between her and the three sharks who had once called her neighbor.

The sharks had been relocated several weeks back, the tank empty except for the schools of reef fish who populated both exhibits.

Rey stuffed the last of her fish in her mouth so that she could sign her question.

“I’m not really sure. They’re being really secretive about it, but I heard it was another Ceasg.”

Rey curled her first three fingers in a fist, leaving only her thumb and pinky out, and gestured between herself and the neighboring tank. _Like me?_

“Yeah. Well, not exactly. I was told that a few weeks back a male Ceasg was caught off the coast of Mexico, and Mr. Snoke paid a _fortune_ for him.”

Rey had long ago come to accept her situation, of being property, but the casual mention of another of her kind being bought and sold still made her uncomfortable.

“I think the higher ups are keeping it a secret because their worried someone might try to steal him, though I have no idea how anyone would be able to steal a two-thousand-pound merman.” Finn shrugged. “Anyway, a truck’s supposed to arrive in a few hours with the new attraction. They’ll be keeping him in the back for quarantine for a few days, but then you’ll be getting a new neighbor.”

Rey glanced back at the dividing wall and felt excitement and trepidation well up inside her. If what Finn said was true, and the Aquarium was getting another Ceasg, then Rey wouldn’t be alone anymore. On one hand, she was excited at the prospect of having someone other than Finn to spend time with, another of her kind to befriend and talk to. On the other, she truly didn’t wish a life of captivity on anyone. It was lonely, and boring, and at the root, humiliating, though Rey had long since learned to shove those emotions aside and focus on survival.

If imprisonment had put a five-year-old Rey in a months long depression, what would it do to a full grown Ceasg, much less a male? Humans knew next to nothing about the men of her species, but from the vague bits Rey remembered from her time in the wild ocean, the men were larger, prouder, and far more aggressive then the women.

Rey pushed the thoughts aside. She would know soon enough, when her new neighbor was revealed to her. Even so, Rey couldn’t help but let her thoughts stray back to mystery of the new arrival and all that he would entail.

Finn sat with her for a while after that, feeding her the rest of her fish and softly chatting with her. It was two hours until opening that another employee came running up to Finn and excitedly told him that the truck carrying the new asset had just arrive and that they were right, it’s a Ceasg and holy _fuck_ it was HUGE! Finn raced away with his friend to go see the newest addition, but not before waving goodbye to Rey and telling her he’d be back soon.

Rey watched the two humans run off, a feeling of excitement and dread building in her.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I loved OptimisticBeth's mermaid fic 'Across the Way' so much I decided to make my own spin off.
> 
> Art I made of mermaid Rey: https://itsaspacefairytale.tumblr.com/image/172704040892


End file.
